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Withdrawal and Return: Reflections on Monastic Retreat from the World
- Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 6, Number 2, Fall 2006
- pp. 149-172
- 10.1353/scs.2006.0064
- Article
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Among the central paradoxes of monasticism in the Western tradition hasbeen the ongoing tension between the desire for marginality and freedomfrom the world and the sense of responsibility to take a prophetic stancebefore the church and society. Aspects of this paradox of withdrawal andreturn, flight and commitment, are investigated here through an examinationof three paradigmatic monastics: Antony the First Hermit, Hildegard ofBingen, and Thomas Merton. The ideal monastic, in Jean Leclercq's terms, issomeone who is both free of the world and also free for the world.